Everyone knew that there was something between the captain and his chief medical officer, but there was no consensus about just how far things might have gone.

Spock, with cool Vulcan logic, pointed out that Starfleet regulations forbade officers from fraternizing with the crew. Uhura reminded him that a fellow officer was not "crew" in the strict sense of the word, and Sulu said that it wasn't as if the captain paid a lot of mind to Starfleet regulations anyhow.

Chekov refused to express an opinion on the matter. Scotty, seeing the way the kid watched Sulu when he thought no one was looking, had his own idea about why Chekov stayed quiet. Personally he thought that McCoy would have been hard-pressed to refuse Kirk if the captain had made a move on him.

"Does it really matter?" Sulu wondered aloud.

"I'd like to know." Uhura's jaw was firm as she spoke. "After the way he used to chase the female cadets around at the Academy? It would be amusing to know if it's true."

"How do you plan to go about it? If either the captain or Dr. McCoy wished us to be aware of a relationship between them, they would have mentioned it," said Spock.

"I have an idea," said Scotty. "The replicator is programmed not to produce any poisonous substances except for certain cleaning or medicinal uses, but I believe with a wee bit of tweaking to her code, I can override that restriction." And he explained the rest of his plan to the other four.

At the Enterprise's holiday party the following week, Sulu and Chekov engaged the doctor and the captain respectively in conversation, unobtrusively herding them toward a particular spot in the recreation room. At that point, Spock took over, while Uhura and Scotty watched from the nearby vantage point of the punch table.

"Captain."

"Yes, Mr. Spock?"

"I believe you are in a perfect position to demonstrate an old Earth custom, are you not?"

Kirk blinked and held up his punch cup. "If you're referring to the custom of drinking alcoholic beverages at celebrations, I thought you were already familiar with that."

"No, Captain," Spock replied, just as McCoy glanced upward.

"Jim," he said, touching Kirk's arm and pointing to the ceiling. "Look."

The sprig of mistletoe that Scotty had had the replicator create had a festive red bow around it, but no redder than McCoy's cheeks after Kirk saw it, grinned, and gave the doctor a long, deep, and very public kiss.

"That settles that, it seems," said Uhura to Scotty in a tone of deep satisfaction.